1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing new resin based materials. More particularly, the disclosure pertains to use of soybean oil to prepare epoxy resin suitable for making pultrudable composite materials and for coating food containers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Epoxy resin is widely used in manufacturing and construction sectors. The production value of epoxy resin for the United States, Western Europe and Japan in 1999 was estimated to be over $2 billion. It is also estimated that the growth of epoxy resin consumption in the United States and Western Europe for years 1999-2004 averaged about 3.5%-4%. Because conventional epoxy resins are solely based upon petroleum derived products, increasing use of epoxy resin means greater demand for petroleum products. In an effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, there are growing interests for a dual-resin system that may supplement petroleum-based epoxy resins with epoxy resins made from renewable sources, such as vegetable oils, while at the same time enhance certain properties of the materials.
One application of epoxy resin is in the manufacturing of composite materials. Pultrusion is the fastest and most cost-effective composite manufacturing processes, and is well suited for high volume production for structural applications. Existing soybean based epoxy resins suffer from lack of certain desirable properties, such as pultrudability or mechanical toughness, to name a few. There is therefore a need to develop an improved pultrudable bio-based resin that is suitable for manufacturing composite materials.
Every year, more than 100 billion cans are produced worldwide for packaging perishable foods and beverages. Food and beverage cans are usually made of materials containing a metal substrate and an organic lacquer. The interior coating of the cans helps prevent the metal from reacting with the contents of the can. For example, the coating may prevent corrosion of the metal by acidic beverages. Petroleum derived products are the major source of can-coating materials. Using plant derived renewable raw materials to develop these coatings may reduce the burden on diminishing petroleum resources.
Beverage and food cans are usually two-piece cans produced by the drawn and wall ironing process, and typically require highly flexible coatings. However, traditional curing without epoxidation produces densely cross-linked films with high chemical resistance but poor flexibility. There is a need for a coating material that is more flexible than conventional coatings.